Postal-card



(ModeL) W. ARMSTRONG.

Postal Card.

No. 241,523. Patented Maylfl, I881.

' Wirzesses;

UNITED STATES PATENT. OFFICE.

WILLIAM ARMSTRONG, OF MARTINSBURG, WEST VIRGINIA.

POSTAL-CARD.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 241,523, dated May 17, 1881.

Application filed March 10, 1881.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, WILLIAM ARMSTRONG, a citizen of the United States, residing at Martinsburg, in the county of Berkeley and State of West Virginia, have invented certainnew and useful Improvements in Postal-Cards and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, and toletters or figures of reference marked thereon, which form a part of this specification.

My invention relates to new and useful improvements in postal-cards 5 and the novelty consists in the construction and arrangement of parts, as will be more fully hereinafter set forth, and specifically pointed outin the claims.

The object of the invention is to provide a device which will allow the party sending for information or memoranda to indicate his or her wishes upon a postal-card. which may be transmitted open to the public, and at the same time to transmit a United States postage-stamp to provide for a full return-postage for the reply.

Men of business in any community have long felt the necessity of such aprovision. The sender not only requires a minute or detailed reply, but he wishes to have the return-postal expense liquidated or provided for by himself,

not only to insure a reply, but also to place the expense of the transmittal of the reply upon the part of the sender of the original message.

To this end the invention consists in providing a United States postal card with a pocket, sack, or other holding device, in which a United States postage-stamp may be placed securely and transmitted from one post-office to another with safety, and various methods may be employed to secure this result.

As evil-disposed persons might meddle with the transmitted return-stamp, it is desirable that the containing-chamber should be in full view of the carriers or persons handling the mail, and that the card should be of a distinctive character. For this reason I prefer that a pocket should be formed in the body of the card when the same is being manufactured, and that a proper holding-flap should be provided, said flap being open to observation. This pocket may be formed in either corner or (ModeL) near either edge and a small adhesive seal of paper he made to hold the stamp securely in place; or a small stamp-pocket may be formed separately and adapted to be secured to the card after formation.

Any proper designssuch as State-seals or the like-may be employed upon this style of card to denote the location of the stamp, and these designs may be eminently useful in thus indicating the presence or absence of returnpostage, and consequently indicating the necessity of replying.

To enable others skilled in the art to vmake and use my invention, I will describe the construction and mode of operation, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, which form a part of this specification, and in which- Figure 1 is a front view of a card made according to my invention; Fig. 2, an edge View thereof, and Fig. 3 a detail of a modification.

Referring to the drawings, in which similar letters of reference indicate like parts, A represents the ordinary postal-card split either in its formation or afterward atb, to form a pocket,.B, adapted to hold a postage-stamp, w, for transmittal and 0 represents an adhesive wafer adapted to hold the mouth of the pocket secure against the loss of the stamp.

Various modifications may be made without departing from the principle or sacrifiein g the advantages of my invention, the essential features of which are a receptacle to hold a postage-stamp and means for securing said receptacle in a closed condition.

Having thus indicated the gist and scope of the invention, what I claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent ot' the United States, is

1. A postal-card having formed therein or secured thereon apocket or receptacle adapted. to contain and transmit a stamp for returnpostage, as specified. 

